links for 2008-10-26

"But what industry observers like Rosen tend to omit, underreport, or dismiss is another equally if not more powerful redistribution of power taking place in the contemporary media ecosystem: a sapping of economic and cultural power away from professional journalists by what I like to call The People Formerly known as the Employers. Employers in the media industries increasingly tend to withdraw from labor, that is, from taking responsibility for their creative workforce – instead giving them the feeling – such as in a recent survey among media workers at Fairfax (link to PDF) in Australia – that they are just assets that cost money." Not a new phenomenon in general economic terms, but an interesting take (via Mark Hamilton)